Manufacture of iron and steel and their alloys.



UNITED STATES Patented August 23, 1904.

PATENT ,OFFICEE.

JOSE BAXERES DE ALzUeARAY, OEBRO-MLEY, ENGLAND- MANUFACTURE OF IRONANDSTEEL AND THEIFI ALLOYS.v

SPECIFICATION forming part er Letters Patent No. 768,553, dated auust'es, 1904.

Original application filed June 16 1903, Serial No. 161,678. Divided andthis application filed June 21, 1904. Serial No. 213,527.. (Nospecimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J osr'i BAXERES DEI AL- ZUGARAY, a citizen ofArgentina, residing at Bromley, county of Kent, EnglarId, have in ventedcertain new and useful Improvements .in the Manufacture of Ironand Steeland Their Alloys, of which the followingis a specification.

This invention relates to the production of iron and ,steel and theiralloys direct from the ore, the object of the invention being. tosimplify the treatment of the ores of. a more or less general characterand to provide an effective methodof treating those ores which containmore or less large quantities of phosphorus, sulfur, and other injuriouselements.

To this end the invention consists, broadly. in adding to the orefiuxing and refining agents with or without reducing or carbonaceousmaterial.

For the purpose of this invention the ore and the materials to be mixedwith it are first pulverized and are then made into bricks or slabs forconvenience of subsequent treat-v ment. If the ore is of a magneticcharacter, the pulverized ore maybe concentrated by magneticconcentration or by any other suitable process.

I am aware that it has been proposed to mix pulverized ore withpulverized reducing or carbonaceous material and a fluxing material andto make the same into bricks or slabs for convenience of treatment, andI do not, therefore, make any claim for such mixture nor for the makinginto bricks.

The methods of procedure just referred to are not successful, especiallywith what may be" termed refractory ore, such as above referred to; butby adding to the pulverized ore a refining agent in addition to theother materials mentioned I have obtained extraordinary results evenwith a refractory ore.

In carrying out this invention I may proceed in one of two ways. Thus Imay mix the carbonaceous material with the ore, the

fluxing and the refining material, and make it into blocks or slabs, towhich I give the name of carburized bricks, or I may leave out thecarbonaceous material, in which case I design-ate the bricks as,non-carburized bricks. In the first case, the reducing agent beingmixed with the ore in suitable propor tion, the addition of carbonaceousmaterial in the fusing operation will be unnecessary, while in thesecond case the carbonaceous material will be added in theblast-furnacein the usual. way. In the latter case the reducing material employed maybe gas, as. now well understood.;[ The production of the carburized ornon-carburized bricks will to some extentbe determined by the questionof trans.- port or the use to which they are to be subsequently applied.Thus in the first case the bricks may be employed in the making of steelfor the purpose of recarburizing in the Bessemer furnace, while in thesecond case the bricks will be used in order to decarburize in theSiemens, the open-hearth, or the tilting furnace. The twokinds of bricksmay also be used together or consecutively in the furnace, in which casethey will constitute a new process for producing steel, although theproperty of the non-carburized bricks will be to decarburize the excessof carbon in the carburized bricks.

For the purpose of illustratingthis new process I may give the followingformula, it being understood that the proportions and the materialsreferred to for each kind of brick may be varied according tocircumstances, thus Carbmized Bricks. Non-cm'bm'ized Bricks. Ore; parts.Ore 65 paits. Coke 25 parts. Fluor-spar 5 parts. Fluor-spar 5 parts.Sodium oh1or 2% parts. Sodiumch-lor 2% parts. Si1icateors1ag.. 25 parts.Lime 2%parts. Lime 2% parts. 100 parts 100 parts.

:stdel.

In the above-named constitution of the bricks the silicate or slag willact as part of a binder, while the fiuor-spar and the chlorid serveasfiux and purifying or refining agent, respectively. Other materialswhich will be suitable for the latter purpose are earthy or alkalioxids, other chlorids, fluorids, nitrates, silicates, or mixtures ofthese several bodies or compounds. 5

By mixing and treating the ore as above described the elimination ofphosphorus, sulfur, and other injurious elements is effected.

The preparation of the bricks may be as follows: The pulverizedmaterials are well mixed together dry and the mixture is then moistenedwith about ten per cent. or other suitable proportion of the quantity ofthe ore, of lime and water, (or it may be sea-water) and the whole iswell kneaded. The mass is then subjected to sufficient pressure in asuitable apparatus as to form bricks or slabs of great consistency. Thebricks or slabs are afterward dried for a few days by exposure to theair under cover and finally in a suitable oven or kiln.

As the result of my experiments and tests I have found that thetreatment of the bricks carburized and non-carburized separately, asabove set forth, produces a very high quality of pig-iron, which Idesignate refined pigi'ron, and obviously this material may be used forany purposes other than those above named for which it is suitable.

In manufacturing iron and steel alloys according to this inventionsuch,for instance, as the several kinds of spiegel, ferromanganese,silicospiegel, ferrosilicon, ferroaluminium,

ferrocln'omium, and ferronickel, and also the steel of various gradesand its alloys with manganese, chromium, tungsten, nickel, copper,titaniui'n, aluminium, silicon, boron, molybdenum, vanadium, and othermetals or metallic mixtures the bricks of either character beforementioned, according to the alloy to be obtained, are mixed with oxids,the reduced metals or any salt of the metal or metals or non-metallicelements to be alloyed.

IV hat I claim as my invention is- The process of manufacturing iron andsteel and their alloys from the ore and consisting in mixing pulverizedore with carbon in excess of that required for reduction and a liux andrefining agent to produce a earburizcd material, compressing the sameinto bricks and fusing these bricks with similar bricks of anon-carburized material composed of ore, a binding material, a flux anda refining agent all as herein described.

In testimony whereof I hereunto ailix my signature in presence of twowitnesses.

JOSE llAXllltl'lS llli AhZUGAllAY.

Vitnesses:

F. E. NEWTON, R. B. SnwARi).

